How to Put a Follow Button on a Facebook Profile

Want to grow your influence on Facebook beyond your immediate circle of friends? Activating the Follow button on your personal profile is the smartest way to do it. This simple change allows anyone to subscribe to your public updates without sending a friend request, essentially turning your profile into a broadcast channel for your ideas, brand, or creative work. This article gives you the exact step-by-step instructions to enable the Follow button and provides tips on what to do next to build your audience.

Understanding the Difference: Friends vs. Followers

Before we get into the technical steps, it's helpful to understand the fundamental difference between a “friend” and a “follower” on Facebook. The distinction is all about access and reciprocity.

A friendship on Facebook is a two-way connection. When you accept a friend request, you and that person can see each other's posts, photos, and profile information, depending on your individual privacy settings. It implies a mutual relationship where both parties agree to connect.

A follow, on the other hand, is a one-way street. When someone follows you, they are subscribing to see the posts you share publicly. They don't need your approval, and you don't automatically see their content in your feed. This allows you to have a public presence and share updates with an unlimited number of people while keeping your more personal, non-public posts reserved for your actual friends.

Who Should Use the Follow Button?

While a standard friends-only profile is perfect for personal use, enabling followers is a game-changer for specific types of users:

• Creators and Influencers: If you're building a personal brand as a writer, artist, musician, vlogger, or expert in any field, the follow feature lets you connect with your audience directly.
• Public Figures: Journalists, activists, community leaders, and politicians can use their personal profiles to share updates, opinions, and news with the public.
• Entrepreneurs and Brand Builders: Many founders and marketers use their personal profiles to build authority and promote their business. The follow feature helps them reach a wider network without having to create and manage a separate Page right away.
• People who have hit the 5,000 Friend Limit: Facebook caps personal profiles at 5,000 friends. If you've reached this limit but still want to connect with more people, the follow button allows your audience to grow indefinitely.
• Privacy-Conscious Individuals with a Public Voice: You might want to share your professional thoughts with the world but keep photos of your family vacation private. Followers see your public posts, while your friends can be granted access to everything else.

Enabling the Follow button: A Step-by-Step Guide

Activating the follow feature is about adjusting a few key privacy settings. The process is slightly different depending on whether you're using a desktop or a mobile device, but the principle is the same. We'll walk you through both.

For Desktop Users (Website)

If you're using Facebook in a web browser, here's how to turn on the Follow button:

1. Log in and Go to Settings: Log in to your Facebook account. Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen to open the menu.
2. Navigate to Settings & Privacy: From the dropdown menu, select Settings &, privacy, and then click on Settings.
3. Find Your Public Post Settings: On the left-hand navigation menu, click on Public Posts. If you don't see this option, it might be nested under Privacy for some accounts.
4. Change "Who Can Follow Me": The very first option you'll see is "Who Can Follow Me." Click the dropdown menu next to it and change the setting from Friends to Public.

That's it! As soon as you set this to "Public," the Follow button is enabled. However, you should review the other settings on this page to make sure they align with how you want to manage your audience.

Important Related Settings:

• Public Post Comments: Decide who can comment on your public posts. You can set it to Public (anyone), Friends of Friends, or just Friends. For maximum engagement, "Public" is often best, but be prepared for community management.
• Public Post Notifications: Choose if you want to receive notifications when people who aren't your friends start following you or interact with your public posts.
• Public Profile Info: Control who can like or comment on the parts of your profile that are always public, like your profile picture and cover photo.

For Mobile Users (iOS and Android App)

The steps on the Facebook app are just as straightforward. Here's how to do it on your phone:

1. Open the Menu: Launch the Facebook app and tap on the Menu icon (your profile picture and three horizontal lines) in the bottom-right corner (iOS) or top-right corner (Android).
2. Access Settings: Scroll down and tap on Settings &, privacy to expand the section, then tap on Settings.
3. Go to Audience and Visibility: Scroll down until you see the "Audience and Visibility" section. Tap on Followers and public content.
4. Enable Public Followers: At the top of the screen, under "Who can follow me," select Public.

Just like on desktop, you'll see several other settings below this option for managing comments and notifications on your public posts. It's a good idea to review these now to customize how people can interact with your content.

How to Check If It Worked: Viewing Your Profile as a Visitor

After changing your settings, you'll want to confirm that the Follow button is visible to the public. Facebook's "View As" feature makes this easy.

1. Go to Your Profile: Navigate to your own profile page.
2. Open the Profile Menu: Tap or click the three-dots icon (...) located next to your "Edit Profile" button.
3. Select "View As": From the menu that appears, choose View As.

Your profile will reload to show you exactly what it looks like to a member of the public - someone who is not your friend. Instead of the "Add Friend" button, you should now see a prominent Follow button. This confirms you've successfully enabled the feature.

Okay, The Follow Button is On. Now What? Tips for Growing Your Audience

Simply turning on the button is just the first step. To actually attract and retain followers, you need a strategy. This is where you shift from using Facebook as a personal diary to using it as a publishing platform.

1. Create High-Quality, Public Posts Consistently

Your followers have subscribed to your content - so give them something valuable! Stop sharing only personal life updates. Instead, focus on topics where you have expertise or a unique perspective. Share helpful advice, industry insights, interesting articles with your analysis, or behind-the-scenes glimpses of your work. Whatever your niche, consistency is vital. Regular posting keeps your audience engaged and signals to Facebook's algorithm that your profile is active.

2. Engage With Your Community

Social media is a two-way conversation, even when it's a one-way follow. When people leave comments on your public posts, respond to them. Acknowledge their feedback, answer their questions, and thank them for their contributions. Don't be afraid to post questions to your audience to spark discussion. Engagement builds a loyal community and makes your followers feel seen and appreciated.

3. Promote Your Profile (Without Being Spammy)

Let people know they can follow you. Here are a few simple ways to do it:

• Add a link to your Facebook profile in your email signature.
• Include your Facebook profile link in your bio on other platforms like X, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
• When you contribute to an online community or group, your profile becomes a calling card. If your public content is strong, people who appreciated your contribution will often click through and follow you.

4. Mix Up Your Content Formats

Don't just post links or text updates. Experiment with a variety of content formats to keep your feed interesting. Share high-quality photos, create text-based graphics, ask questions, run polls, and most importantly, use video. Facebook Reels and live videos are incredibly effective for building a personal connection. They let your followers see and hear you, which builds trust and rapport much faster than text alone.

Final Thoughts

Activating the Follow button on Facebook turns your personal profile from a simple social network to a potent broadcasting tool. It’s a simple tweak in your privacy settings that opens up your ability to connect with an unlimited audience, share your expertise and ideas, and build a meaningful personal brand directly on the world's largest social network.

Once you start making great content and gaining followers, keeping everything organized across your social channels becomes the next big step. For this, we built Postbase to streamline social media management. We created a tool that's built for modern creators, with a visual content calendar that makes planning easy and an interface that handles short-form video for Reels and TikToks without any fuss. The idea is simple: let you spend more time creating and connecting, not wrestling with a clunky, outdated platform.